Soil biodiversity and soil organic carbon are vital to the way ecosystems function and they largely determine the role of land in producing food, storing water, and mitigating climate change. This report highlights how soil organic carbon and soil biodiversity provide the foundation for terrestrial ecosystem services. Restoring or preserving soil biodiversity and soil organic carbon requires increased inputs of organic matter or a reduction of carbon losses, or both. Government strategies are needed to guide investments in drylands by local land users, private companies and other stakeholders, in order to fulfil their public responsibility for protecting and promoting the multifunctionality of land.

Drylands cover 41 percent of the earths terrestrial surface. The urgency of and international response to climate change have given a new place to drylands in terms both of their vulnerability to predicted climate change impacts and their potential contribution to climate change mitigation. This book aims to apply the new scientific insights on complex dryland systems to practical options for development. A new dryland paradigm is built on the resources and capacities of dryland peoples, on new and emergent economic opportunities, on inward investment, and on the best support that dryland science can offer.